Cisco Systems Inc., headquartered in San Jose, California, runs one of the most complex supply chains in the global information technology industry. The company relies on more than 1,000 suppliers, four contract manufacturers, and 50,000 purchased parts. It also outsources assembly. In October 2009, senior management was concerned the [Influenza A] H1N1 flu outbreak would evolve into a pandemic and disrupt its supply chain. The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2002 and 2003 nearly paralyzed business in Asia, site of many Cisco suppliers.

In the case study “Supply Chain Risk Management at Cisco: Response to H1N1,” professor Ravi Anupindi, faculty director of the Ross Master of Supply Chain Management (MSCM) Program at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, examines a pandemic drill that Cisco applied to its supply chain and its managers to test resilience while assessing procedures the company has taken in the past. In the following Q&A, Anupindi talks with the Ross School of Business about Cisco’s best-in-class supply-chain risk management and some of the lessons learned from the tsunami in Japan.

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